John Wright (1) was born in 1831 in Ireland, the son of Oliver W. (b. 1804) and Ann (Best, b. 1803).

Sometime between 1831 and 1834 John and his parents left Ireland and immigrated to North America, settling first in Canada by 1834, and moving to New York sometime between 1834 and 1837. They lived in New York for some years and by 1850 John was working as a sailor and living with his family in Hounsfield, Jefferson County, New York, where his father was a laborer (and his mother was unable to read or write). In any case, John left New York and moved westward, settling in western Michigan by the winter of 1862.

John stood 5’8’’ with brown eyes and hair and a dark complexion, was 31 years old and possibly living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company C on February 13, 1862, at Saranac, Ionia County for 3 years, and was mustered the same day. He was suffering from debility when he was admitted to the hospital (probably Chesapeake) at Fortress Monroe, Virginia on August 12, 1862, and transferred on August 16 to the general hospital at Annapolis, Maryland. He was sick in the hospital in Baltimore, Maryland through December, and was dropped from the company rolls on January 10, 1863, at Camp Pitcher, Virginia.

In fact he never rejoined the regiment, and was admitted to the general hospital in Alexandria, Virginia on January 17, 1863, suffering from the effects of typhoid fever. He was discharged at Alexandria, Virginia, on February 16, 1863, for ‘stiffness of the joints and chronic rheumatism.”

John listed Sackett’s Harbor, New York, as his mailing address on his discharge paper, and indeed he probably returned to his family home where he worked for a time as a sailor (probably on Lake Ontario). He eventually returned to Michigan, however, and was living in Tuscola, Tuscola County by 1890.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association. In 1876 he applied for and received pension number 250,320.

John was admitted to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 3417) on July 14, 1900 and died five days later. He was buried in the Home cemetery: section 4 row 9 grave no. 8;